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Salty rot wafts across jumbled stone,
swelling into the surges of brine
that creep up and back down
before me, ceaselessly.

As I watch, mighty rock wears to
pebbled specks, dulled jewels of
green, gray and brown washed until
they sparkle with veins of white and rust.

Life clings, waving
softly below and lying limply above –
starving and drowning against
each wave’s sucking caress.

Desperately,water and stone
push and pulse in
an endless press to merge, constantly
frustrated by the slipping and sliding away.

Unaltered change shapes the face
of this place I love, as
each year we return to find that
the sea has moved the immovable, yet again.


StoneTosser  © 2006

Note: (Almost) every year when we return to the Northern coastof California and we always try to visit this beach.This particular beach has always been amazing with a tremendous wash ofmulticolored pebbles brought ashore for us to explore. The year I wrote this poem it was different.It looked barren, as though the sea had swept in to take the most beautifulstones with it to the depths. We had a good time there but the change reallystruck me and I was inspired to write this. This is my youngest son in the picture (who is quite a bit older now). Here are some of the stones we've collected on that beach in a gorgeous cherry tray I bought in a San Francisco Japanese antique store in Japan Town.

Yes, this is the picture from my site. The big stone has carved on it the Japanese symbol for "wisdom" and was given to me by a close friend near the start of my personal journey of living out loud.